Indie superhero film “The Posthuman Project” takes off

With his arms flailing and his gray suit jacket flapping, a bespectacled man sprints down an Oklahoma City alley late one spring night.

His eyes search wildly for a way around a dead end, his attempts to climb a flimsy chain link fence fail miserably, and he suddenly finds himself face to face with an implacable, shadowy figure known as “The Assassin.”

“Honestly, the further I go, the better. The less I can make people like this guy, the better,” said black-clad actor Rett Terrell, 29, of Oklahoma City.

Except for the persistent blaring of train horns, Automobile Alley is typically a pretty quiet place around 11:30 p.m. Sunday. Fortunately, the commotion in what's known as Graffiti Alley on this particular night is accompanied by the sharp clack of a clapperboard and Oklahoma filmmaker Kyle William Roberts' shout of “action!”

“Since I was probably 16 and really started doing broadcast journalism and video stuff, I wanted to direct a movie,” the director/producer said during a middle-of-the-night lunch break on the set of his feature film debut, “The Posthuman Project.” “Even though I don't know if I necessarily want to do features the rest of my life ... I really love this.”

Homegrown superheroes

Along with working as a NewsOK videographer, Roberts, 29, owns Reckless Abandonment Pictures and under that shingle has earned national acclaim and an Emmy nomination for his innovative short films, commercials and music videos, often incorporating stop-motion animation.

His first feature is based on a story by The Oklahoman Features Editor Matthew Price that DC Comics writer and Tulsa native Sterling Gates developed into a screenplay.

“The Posthuman Project” combines two of Roberts' favorites: superhero movies and John Hughes films. The coming-of-age adventure follows five high school seniors who suddenly gain super powers during a rock-climbing trip.

“There's a few people that have some pretty nefarious intentions for the kids,” Terrell explains while prepping for the Graffiti Alley scene. “I'm definitely the physical threat. ... If a punch is thrown, a gun's being shot, I'm definitely on the end of those.”

He gets to do some of both during the nighttime shoot. Under Roberts direction, Terrell and fellow Oklahoma City actor Lucas Ross, playing the ill-fated man in the gray suit, practice the fight choreography and then run through the scene a few times with the camera rolling.

Since they're making an indie movie with a budget in the thousands rather than millions, Roberts and his crew have to worry about more than just Ross' inflection on a key line or the best angle to capture the tense face-off.

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Brandy McDonnell, also known by her initials BAM, writes stories and reviews on movies, music, the arts and other aspects of entertainment. She is NewsOK’s top blogger: Her 4-year-old entertainment news blog, BAM’s Blog, has notched more than 1...